Victory Review~~4/4/10

[CruiseLover824]

Let's see how this goes---I haven't posted a complete review here on CC yet. I was on the 4/4 sailing of the Victory. Here goes nothing!

 

 

Pre-Cruise Stuff

 

So...this year we decided to fly in a day ahead of our cruise. It was the best decision we could have made. It was so much more relaxed having the extra day!!

 

San Juan Airport~~The airport was very busy. Overall though, it was a very easy airport to go through. We flew in on a Delta flight that arrived around 2pm. There were a lot of other people landing around the same time which caused quite a traffic jam while getting through the terminal. The luggage claim was a straight shot down from our gate and was well marked....except for where Delta was unloading their luggage. We did have to ask where the Delta luggage claim was located. There were only 2 choices...go left or go right--it was to the right. Once we gathered up our luggage, finding a taxi was super easy. There is a taxi stand directly outside of the baggage area. Each fare to the tourist areas is pre-determined by a zone. Our fee was only $25 for all of our bags and the taxi ride to our hotel in Condado for 6 people. They do charge $1/wheeled bag. The ride was about 15 or so minutes long.

 

Radisson Ambassador Hotel & Casino~~We stayed in Condado at the Radisson. It is an older hotel, but it was a nice place to stay. The cost for 4 adults was $218 including taxes and resort fees. The base price was only $179 for an Ambassador Club room. This room included 2 double beds, breakfast, and snacks at 5pm. The bathroom appeared to have been recently re-done. There was a nice pool on the roof. The hotel also featured a casino and a nice restaurant called the Ambassador Grill. I would stay there again.

 

Hotel room on 6th floor at Radisson Ambassador:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Condado Area~~The Condado area was about 15 or so minutes from the Carnival pier and much cheaper to stay in than OSJ. I had looked at the Sheraton, but it was double the price. In my opinion, there wasn't a ton of stuff to do in Condado, but I would stay there again. The hotel was only a block away from Condado beach. The beach was decent--but it also had some parts that weren't as nice. There was a Marriott that was about 4 blocks down on the beach. A few more blocks down was a hotel called La Concha that was extremely nice.

 

Condado Beach

 

 

 

One thing to mention...There wasn't a whole lot open on Sunday morning. We found a Starbucks and a Walgreens that were open early. The Walgreens however, can't sell snacks and sodas until 11 on Sundays according to a clerk. We were going to buy some sodas to bring aboard, but the grocery was all roped off. There wasn't much else open on Sundays here.

 

We caught a taxi around 11am from the hotel and headed to the pier to check in.

[ladyj3641]

Thanks for the information. I will make sure to buy our pop Saturday night! I don't think anyone has ever mentioned that before, I will make a mental note of it!!!

 

I can't wait to sail in 75 days!!

[CruiseLover824]

We took our taxi directly to the pier from the hotel. I think we arrived around 11:15am. There was absolutely no line to get into the terminal. There were security guards standing outside the main terminal area--they glanced at our FunPasses and ID's and sent us ahead into the the actual terminal building. We took the escalators to the 2nd level to get checked in. There was a small line inside, but nothing like Miami!! It took about 20 mins to complete the check in process. It all went very smoothly. We were given a Zone card and told to wait for it to be called. Well, it only took about 15 minutes and they started to board the ship. When it was all said and done, we were sitting on the Lido deck before 1pm!! We of course were greeted by the bar waiters offering the FunShip Special DOD. I do have to say that the bar staff was constantly asking if you wanted bar service. As soon as my drink was even close to being empty, someone was there asking if I needed more. At times, it was a bit annoying being asked every 2 seconds if you wanted more. They were definitely pushing drinks more than on my past cruises.

 

The Carnival Victory docked at Pier 4

[roundthebend]

Jamie, I'll have to make a mental note of that too.

 

Glad to hear the La Concha is nice - that's where we'll be staying.

[CruiseLover824]

After having lunch on the Lido deck---they offered the typical Carnival fare: hamburgs, hot dogs, fries, salads, chicken tenders and some heartier dishes on the inside buffet, we headed back out to tour OSJ.

 

We thought we were being smart and went across the street to catch the FREE trolley that takes you pretty much everywhere in OSJ. The trolley was rumored to run every 30 minutes--except for the day we wanted to catch it. We waited for almost an hour, and NO trolley. There is a trolley that runs on Sunday, however, there are less of them apparently. The traffic was also very congested all around OSJ---most likely because of all the passengers coming in and leaving the 3 ships which were docked. We discovered that Fort San Cristobal was only about a 5 minute walk from trolley stop 1...so we started walking.

 

It wasn't very far--HOWEVER--the entrances to the fort are at the top of some very steep hills. If anyone has mobility issues, it would be next to impossible to walk up to the entrance. It was very hard on the calf muscles walking up to the entrance. We did finally see a trolley once we got to Fort San Cristobal. The fort was worth seeing---there were some stunning views from up there. There was a small fee to enter...I believe it was $3.00.

 

The elusive free trolley!

 

The outside of the Fort

 

A view from inside the fort

 

Looking out on the city

[falkcor]

good start! :cool:

[CruiseLover824]

Jamie, I'll have to make a mental note of that too.

 

Glad to hear the La Concha is nice - that's where we'll be staying.

 

The lobby was amazing!! We took a good look around and thought that it was absolutely gorgeous there. They also had a very nice beach area that was kind of like a cove. I am sure you will enjoy staying there!

[CruiseLover824]

Thanks for the information. I will make sure to buy our pop Saturday night! I don't think anyone has ever mentioned that before, I will make a mental note of it!!!

 

I can't wait to sail in 75 days!!

 

The clerk told us it was to encourage people to attend church on Sundays. It appeared that you could still buy single serving bottles, but I am not sure if you could even do that. They actually had all the grocery aisles roped off and the coolers tied shut. There is a CVS right down the street from the pier, so you could wait and get stuff there. It was a 2 minute walk from the pier.

 

 

Stay tuned.....more to come tomorrow!

[roundthebend]

The lobby was amazing!! We took a good look around and thought that it was absolutely gorgeous there. They also had a very nice beach area that was kind of like a cove. I am sure you will enjoy staying there!

 

Thanks for the info CruiseLover. Looking forward to the rest of your review!!

[Joanns6569]

The clerk told us it was to encourage people to attend church on Sundays. It appeared that you could still buy single serving bottles, but I am not sure if you could even do that. They actually had all the grocery aisles roped off and the coolers tied shut. There is a CVS right down the street from the pier, so you could wait and get stuff there. It was a 2 minute walk from the pier.

 

 

Stay tuned.....more to come tomorrow!

 

Thank you for the great start. Glad to know about the soda, i need my diey coke with splenda for the trip. Planned on bring a 12 pack of that and a case of water.

Jamie and Lyndal we are 74 days away!! Woo Hoo!:p

[pokergirl34]

We'll be on Victory in December! Can't wait! We're staying at the Caribe Hilton but I think we'll get in too late to enjoy it much. Maybe Sunday we will be able to do a little beach-combing...

 

Can't wait to hear what you did in all those wonderful ports!

[da brickhouse]

CruiseLover,

 

Thanks for posting pictures of the Raddison in Condado and all of the tidbits about the area, that is where we will be staying pre-cruise in July.

[CruiseLover824]

CruiseLover,

 

Thanks for posting pictures of the Raddison in Condado and all of the tidbits about the area, that is where we will be staying pre-cruise in July.

 

No problem...I hadn't seen much posted about the Radisson, so I thought I was sure to take a few pics while we were there! If you have any other questions, let me know!

 

 

I will continue my review later today---I am at work right now and don't have access to my pics!

[CruiseLover824]

After we finished checking out the fort, we walked back through OSJ. The streets in OSJ are very narrow, and the streets are crowded. This is not an easy city to walk around because of all of the steep hills. There are plenty of souvenir shops and many jewelry stores as well.

 

Narrow OSJ street

 

We ended up walking to a place called la Puntilla which had a street fair going on. There were local food vendors stationed all over this area. We noticed a long line at one particular spot...it turned out to be a stand selling freshly made churros. You could get them filled with chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, or caramel filling. They were delicious!! In addition to the food, there were street performers, music, and dancing.

 

 

 

Looking down the street at the vendors

 

After we walked around for a little while more, we headed back to the ship to check out our cabin. I pretty much knew what to expect as I had stayed on the Lido deck on the Valor last year. We had in fact picked the same cabin number---9244. The layout was a bit different as the Victory is older.

 

Cabin 9244

 

 

 

 

I enjoy staying on the Lido because it is so close to the pools and the buffets. It makes it really easy to run down and grab a drink or a snack. There is also a self-serve laundry room on the lido deck, port side which is very nice to be close to. On the port side of Lido in the front of the ship, there is a door that leads to a forward outside deck. This is a GREAT place to watch sailway!! There were usually only about 5 other people up there at any given time. It is fun to watch the silly people coming back late from up there!!

[kelz66]

nice...please keep it coming.

 

:D

[CruiseLover824]

The Victory docked at Havensight at 7am!! We slept in just a bit and didn't get off of the ship until 8:30am. I had been to St. Thomas a few years ago, and decided to try something different this time around.

 

Our group decided on doing the St. Thomas Skyride. They sell the tickets through Carnival for about $20--which is $2 cheaper than the listed price at the actual Skyride. The Skyride is within walking distance of the pier. We had to walk through Havensight and made it there in about 5 or 6 minutes. Along the way, a local tour/taxi operator claimed he could have gotten us tickets for the Skyride for only $10--so, if you are doing the Skyride, you may want to wait to get tickets from one of the guys that are hanging around Havensight---it could save you $10.

 

The Skyride takes about 7 minutes to get to the top. I am not much for rides like this, but it moves fairly quickly, and the bumps were too bad when it went over the towers. The view is very nice on the way up. It provides an excellent view of the docked ships and the harbor.

 

Once at the top, there are several shops and a bar that sells the absolutely tasty Bushwhacker drinks. They are $9 per drink, but they certainly packed a punch. We did notice that there was a coupon for $2 off the drinks in the little tour book the lady in the Havensight area had given us on our way to the Skyride. Of course--we had already purchased our beverages!

 

Skyride/Paradise Point Pics:

 

 

 

 

 

After taking in the views and drinking the yummy Bushwhacker, we headed back to the ship to eat lunch before going to Magen's Bay at 12:30. We opted for the Carnival excursion because the Papa Bear tour was booked up already. It cost a little more, but we knew we had guaranteed transportation back so we didn't mind.

 

The tour first takes you up into the hills to see Magen's Bay from above. The view was stunning! Driving in St. Thomas is crazy---there are a lot of twisty, steep roads. But they definitely are not as bad as the roads later on in the cruise!!!

 

We finally arrived at the beach around 1:15ish. I have to say that i was a bit disappointed. The beach was very narrow, and not what I had expected. Last year I had been to Tabyana Beach in Roatan, and thought the actual beach area was much nicer there. I do have to say that the water was gorgeous though. The bottom was all sand and not rocky at all. If you or your family are looking for a beach that offers a lot of activites, this IS NOT the place to go. There are no jetskis allowed at Magen's and it didn't appear that they rented out anything else either. We stayed for about 2 hours and then headed back to Havensight for a little shopping.

 

Magen's Bay Pics:

 

[janabm81]

Great review so far...thanks for writing it...can't wait to read more! :)

[CruiseLover824]

To be honest, we didn't do too much in Dominica. With all of the ports in this itinerary, we kind of just wanted to enjoy a day on the ship for the most part.

 

We did go into the port area for a short time right after we docked though. The pier area here was the least developed of any of the Caribbean ports which I have visited. There is no terminal or shops like in all the other ports. It is quite basic---a wooden slatted dock that leads to the street.

 

Once you get to the street area, be prepared to be approached by many, many local vendors. Everyone is trying to sell you a tour--and I mean everyone. There were also ladies selling paper flowers for a dollar. I passed up the first lady and told her I would see about buying one on the way back....she gave me her "card"--a sliver of cardboard with her name written on it.

 

As you can see in the pictures down below, there are a bunch of little tents set up all along the waterfront. Each tent sells pretty much the same thing---mostly a bunch of costume jewelry, colorful wraps, and your typical t-shirts. It was tent after tent of the same old stuff. We did venture down one of the side streets and stepped into the local IGA grocery store to see if they had any Diet Cokes. I didn't see any diet soda of ANY kind---nor were there many tourists around. We headed back around to the street along the waterfront, and then back to the ship. Oh...and guess who remembered me on our way back in? Yes, the flower lady!! She ran up when she saw me and asked if I would buy a flower now. She said it was for her kids---who knows what it was really for, but I gave her a buck and got a paper flower---which didn't even make it all the way home. Oh well.

 

The row of tent stores:

 

The hillside:

 

Colorful buildings:

 

A view from the front of the ship while in port:

 

Another ship that was in port with us:

 

One friend did take an excursion here. She did the easy walking tour of the falls and the emerald pool. She enjoyed it and was glad she had ventured out of the pier area. I had previously heard that the falls and pool were very crowded, but she said neither place was overly crowded. She said the scenery was beautiful and the roads were a bit twisty and rough.

[kenrod]

Enjoying your review so far!

Thanks very much!

[CruiseLover824]

So...I had done some research on Cruise Critic about what to do in Barbados. I was really excited to read that Harrison's Cave had re-opened about a month ago. I had a nice onboard credit and headed to the Excursion desk to buy a tour with my OBC. The lady at the desk said Harrison's was still closed and that Carnival wasn't offering the excursion at the moment. Strange, since I read a review over on the Barbados board about it being open again.

 

Since I couldn't get the tour through the ship, we decided to stick with our original plan of heading to The Boatyard--which I also discovered here on Cruise Critic. The Boatyard is a beach club type place that is fairly close to the dock. The taxi ride there was only $3 a person. The taxi drops you off right in their rather small parking area. Admission for The Boatyard is only $10!! This included a free drink, a beach chair, umbrella, and a FREE taxi ride back to the pier. If you get there later in the day, you may not get a chair or an umbrella. The facilities were very clean and well kept. There is a bar and restuarant right there. The food was reasonable and was pretty tasty. The beach area was very wide--unlike Magen's Bay.

 

The Boatyard itself offers a water trampoline, a rope swing, and a diving pier. It was supposed to have a water iceberg to climb, but that was not out when we were there. If you wanted to do other things like jetski, parasail, or take a catamaran ride--there were plenty of locals offering those things too. My friend did a jetski ride for $30 for 30 mins. Parasailing was being offered for $70. Unfortunately, it did rain off and on during the morning, but that didn't stop us from having a great time here!

 

One thing that was a bit bothersome was the number of locals who wouldn't give up trying to sell you their "hand-made" jewelry or their "amazing" aloe sunburn cures. In fact, the guys in our group had to scare off one local who had rubbed aloe all over my friend's face and feet. She didn't ask him to do it, he was very forceful and just started doing it. When he was done, he said since he had taken care of her, she should take care of him by paying him $15. When she told him she had no money, he became angry and started yelling---he wouldn't leave until the guys stood up and told him to go away.

 

The Boatyard:

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few additional things:

 

Two people in our group did the Sea Turtle & Snorkel Catamaran Trip through Carnival. We had seen wonderful pics of the turtles in a previous review. My friends were a tad bit disappointed with the excursion. They said the catamaran stayed pretty much along the shoreline and didn't really go very far. There were 55 people on their trip and there were only 2 turtles swimming around.

 

Also--Harrison's cave is open, just no excursions offered through Carnival at this time.

 

OHHH and I almost forgot! As we were sitting down on our chairs, I heard someone next to us say--Hey, are you Wendy? It was someone from our roll call!! I had missed the meet and greet, but we had posted pics over on our roll call! We ended up sitting right next to Mark and his family! It was fun meeting a fellow roll call member!! We actually ended up on many of the same excursions during the rest of the cruise!

[CruiseLover824]

Enjoying your review so far!

Thanks very much!

 

Your welcome...I am glad you're enjoying it!

 

Great review so far...thanks for writing it...can't wait to read more!

 

I am having fun writing it! I will be posting more later :)

[Tad510]

Can't wait for more!:)

[CruiseLover824]

When we arrived in St. Lucia, the weather was not cooperating at all. Apparently there had been NO rain on the island for about the last 5 months---until the day we arrived! But we didn't let that spoil our visit.

 

After much surfing on Cruise Critic, we decided to book and island tour with Cosol. The tour was recommended by many, many fellow posters. It was easy to book---you just contact Cosol through email and tell him how many people you have in your group. There is no deposit required beforehand. He was super easy to find in the terminal! Since we had a group of 10, we got to ride in our own van which was nice. We left the pier at about 9:15. There were a lot of people on the tour. I think he said he had 14 vans at our pier and another 6 at the Princess pier. The vans did not all travel together however.

 

The tour started by driving us through the countryside of St. Lucia. It was fairly flat and the roads were not too bad. We stopped at a road-side stand at a banana plantation and our driver purchased freshly picked bananas and then explained the banana growing process. The bananas were very good. They were probably the sweetest ones I have ever eaten. Then the fun began.

 

Let's just say that the roads in St. Lucia are not for the faint of heart. I think we saw about 100 signs that said "hairpin bend". And they weren't kidding. The roads became very narrow and twisty. Our driver, Charlie, was excellent though, and handled them with skill. I personally was glad I was not the one driving! The driver stopped at several key lookout points along the way to allow us to take some beautiful pictures. Our first main stop, however, was for breakfast. The rain was holding off at this point, so they were able to spread the food tables out in the driveway of the house we stopped at. There was a most excellent selection of treats. I particularly enjoyed the chicken and sauce they had as well as the coconut cake. Other food included was: fish, coconut sticks, johnny cakes, fresh mango, fudge, coconut candy, sugar cane sticks, fried plantains, banana fritters, and more. This was also the first stop we saw the beverage bus. The beverages included a very spiced rum punch, diet cokes, waters, cokes, and Piton beer. One word of caution---if you have to use the restroom here, it will cost you $1. They were attended by a very nice man and were quite clean. One note: The driveway down to the food was EXTREMELY steep. If you have mobility issues, this would be difficult to handle.

 

Once we finished up breakfast, we headed over to the drive-in volcano. The roads were quite an adventure once again. On the way there we drove through a small fishing village and saw a really cool tradition. It was a fish seller who stops at house and blows a conch shell to tell the owner he is there to sell his fish. The drive in volcano was okay--but it was pouring when we got there, so we didn't walk around much. They gave the history of the volcano which was interesting. It also smelled horrible because of the sulfur!! But it was cool.

 

We loaded back up in the van and headed over to the Toraille Waterfall. Along the way our driver stopped and bought us some freshly made, warm cocount cookies that were like a crunchy biscotti. They were very good. The waterfall itself was very crowded as many other tours were stopping there. It was beautiful though and worth taking a look.

 

After the waterfall, we headed over to the water taxis to go to Jalousie beach. They have to take water taxis because whichever hotel chain recently purchased the property at the beach, will no longer let Cosol drop his people off there. The water taxi was quick and was a very refreshing boat ride. Again, if you have mobility issues, getting in the water taxi might pose a problem since you have to get into the water to get on the boat. Jalousie beach is situated between the Pitons and was very nice. One note though--it was kind of rocky along the water. I belive that most of the beaches are this way because of the volcano. We spent about an hour or so there which was fine on this day because of the rain.

 

When we got back to Charlie's van, we again were greeted by the beverage bus and had more drinks. We started to make the trip back to the ship, but along the way, we stopped in a little village area where Charlie stopped to get us our hot bread and cheese. The bread was fantastic. We all said it looked like a giant turkey leg---it was bread with a handle! It was slice along one edge so you could put your cheese inside of it. It was yummy. While we were waiting for Charlie to get the bread purchased, some local kids came up and pressed their faces up agaist the van windows. I opened the window and spoke to a boy named Imani. He seemed to be facinated with us. I think he may have been hoping for a few bucks, but all he got was some converstion. He was very sweet.

 

All in all, I would definitely recommend taking Cosol's tour. For the $65 price, you certainly get your money's worth. I truly think we saw almost every inch of the island of St. Lucia. If you are at all prone to motion-sickness, be sure to take some dramamine or ginger pills before you go!! The roads were quite an adventure to say the least!! :eek:

 

A fishing village from above

 

Breakfast!

 

The volcano

 

Flowers at the waterfall

 

The waterfall

[CruiseLover824]

Imani--the boy we met while stopping for bread

 

 

One of the Pitons--a view from Jalousie Beach

[chachi]

How does it work when you check in at the terminal, and then leave in San Juan? Do you have to wait in line again, or can you just walk back on? Thanks